How to Photograph Star Trails

Ready to dive into the wonderful world of star trail photography? Star trails can be a lot of fun to photograph and a great way to add something unique to your portfolio. They can be a bit tricky to shoot at first. Here you will find out how to photograph star trails.

Star Trail Photography Places & Times

Star trail photography is all about location, location, location. First, we need to head to an area that is not filled with light pollution in order to actually photograph the star trails. More importantly, we need an interesting foreground. Your photo is going to be pretty boring if there’s absolutely nothing going on, aside from the star movement. That might work for one shot but beyond that your star trail photography is going to get repetitive really fast.

The light pollution produced from city lights will make the stars less visible in your shots. So, look for potential star photography locations during the day that are far away from any city lights. Find locations that consist of stationary subjects of interest such as a mountain, old barn, rock formation, and so on.

You will want to plan your star trail photography adventures on nights where there is no moon. Consider the moon as another form of light pollution. You will also need a clear sky. Even the slightest amount of clouds can ruin your images.

How to Photograph Star Trails

We’re shooting long exposures of a very small light source in the dead of the night. That means, in most situations, shooting wide open with a fast lens is going to be your best option. I find that shooting around f/2.8 will provide great results for most start trail photography. Naturally, you will also be using a sturdy tripod when shooting star trails to eliminate camera shake.

The length of your exposure is going to depend on many factors, primarily how dramatic you want the star movement to be. Star trail photos can range anywhere from 30 minutes to several hours. Higher ISO settings are not advised because it will produce an enormous amount of noise in the images. However, you can boost your ISO on shorter test shots to calculate your shutter speed at ISO 100.

Once you’ve fully edited your amazing star trail photos, consider decorating your home with them. Lifephoto can provide you with beautiful art prints on canvas, metallic prints, or the new metallic canvas prints.